1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plate member for forming a bus bar of an electric junction box which is mounted on a vehicle as a moving object, a bus bar, and an electric junction box having the bus bar.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various electronic devices, in general, for example a lamp such as a head lamp and a tail lamp, a motor such as a starter motor and a motor for air conditioner, are mounted on a vehicle as a moving object.
The vehicle arranges a junction block in a suitable place so as to supply electric power with the various electronic devices. The junction block is constructed with an electric circuit unit including a plurality of fuses, a relay and the like.
Incidentally, the junction block is referred to as a junction block, a fuse block, or a relay box since the junction block has a fuse, a relay, a bus bar and so on. In this description, the fuse block, the relay box and the junction block are collectively called the electric junction box (for example, Patent Document 1) hereafter.
The conventional electric junction box disclosed in the Patent Document 1 has a box main body, a bus bar 100 (shown in FIGS. 7 and 8) attached to the main body, an upper cover, and a lower cover. Electric components such as a relay, a fuse and so on are installed in the upper surface of the box main body, and a connector of a wiring harness is installed in the lower surface thereof. The bus bar 101 connects a terminal of the electric component to the terminal of the connector of the wiring harness with a predetermined pattern. The upper cover covers the upper surface of the box main body, and the lower cover covers the lower surface thereof. Furthermore, a power cable in which electric power from a battery of the vehicle or an electric generator is supplied is attached to the box main body.
The electric power from an electric source is supplied from the power cable, and the electric power is divided from the cable, the bus bar 100 and so on. Thereafter, the electric power flows in the fuse or the relay, and the above electric junction box supplies electric power to various electronic devices through a wire of the wiring harness.
As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the bus bar 100 has integrally a first terminal portion 101 connected to the fuse, a second terminal portion 102 connected to the relay, and a connection 103 coupling the first terminal portion 101 and the second terminal portion 102.
The first terminal 101 has integrally a first terminal 104 connected to a terminal of the fuse, and a base portion 105 continuing to a base end of the first terminal 104 and linearly extending. The first terminal 104 extends from a one edge of the base portion 105 in a width direction. Both surfaces of the first terminal 104 and both surfaces of the base portion 105 are arranged on the same plane.
The connection 103 is formed in a belt-like shape and linearly extended. Furthermore, the connection 103 is connected to one end of the base portion 105 of the first terminal portion 101, and the longitudinal direction of the connection 103 crosses against the longitudinal direction of the base portion 105. In illustration example, the connection 103 extends from the base portion 105 of the first terminal portion 101 toward a direction away from both the first terminal 104 and the base portion 105. Both surfaces of the connection 103 are arranged on the same plane as both surfaces of the first terminal 104 and both surfaces of the base portion 105.
The second terminal portion 102 has integrally a second terminal 106 connected to the terminal of the relay, and a base portion 107 continuing to a base end of the second terminal 106 and linearly extending. The second terminal 106 is arranged in an end portion of the base portion 107 away from the base portion 105. One edge of the base portion 107 in the width direction is connected to the connection 103. Furthermore, the second terminal 106 is arranged along a longitudinally direction of the first terminal 104 and the base portions 105, 107.
The above bus bar 101 is flexed to a right angle (about 90 degree) between the base portion 105 and the connection 103, and between the base portion 107 and the connection 103 each other. Furthermore, the base portions 105 and 107 in the bus bar 101 are arranged with a space parallel to each other.
The bus bar 100 having the construction described above is manufactured as below. First, a plate member 110 shown in FIG. 9 is formed by punching a long plate, and then a first terminal portion equivalent 111 corresponding to the first terminal portion 101 and a second terminal portion equivalent 112 corresponding to the second terminal portion 102 are integrally formed. Thereafter, a border between a connection equivalent 113 and the first terminal portion equivalent 111 in the plate member 110 is flexed to a right angle, and a border between the connection equivalent 113 and the second terminal portion equivalent 112 is flexed to a right angle in the same direction as the border between a connection equivalent 113 and the first terminal portion equivalent 111.
The connection equivalent 113 is connected to the first and second terminal portion equivalents 111 and 112 in the plate member 110 so that the first and second terminal portion equivalents 111 and 112 are arranged along a longitudinal direction of a part corresponding to the base portions 105 and 107 in the above bus bar 100. For this reason, when the plate is punched, a section A (shown in FIG. 9 with two-dot chain line) surrounding with the first terminal portion equivalent 111 and the connection equivalent 113 and a section B (shown in FIG. 9 with two-dot chain line) surrounding with the first terminal portion equivalent 111 and the second terminal portion equivalent 112 are removed. Thus, the plate of the sections A and B is used with the bus bar 100, and those sections A and B go to waste. For this reason, material yield, that is, the rate of utilization of material trends toward a decrease in the conventional bus bar 100 shown in FIGS. 7 and 8.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a plate member a bus bar, and an electric junction box having the bus bar which can improve the material yield.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Published Application No. H09-45213